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Scaling up from gardens: biodiversity
conservation in urban environments
therefore, vital in fostering a wider interest in nature
conservation issues [4]. Private gardens are especially
significant in the development of a personal relationship
with the natural environment [7].
Urban biodiversity: a conservation role for gardens
and green spaces
With the encroachment of urban areas into rural habitats
and the decrease of rural habitat quality owing to agricultural intensification [8], urban green spaces are becoming
an increasingly important refuge for native biodiversity.
Although urbanisation typically results in a reduction in
biodiversity (Table 1), globally declining taxa can attain
high densities in urban habitats. For instance, urban parks
in San Francisco, USA, support higher mean abundances
of bumblebees (Bombus spp.) than do two parks beyond the
city boundary [9]. Populations of common frog Rana temporaria in Britain have experienced declines in rural areas
but increases in urban parks and gardens [10]. Growth of
experimental bumblebee Bombus terrestris nests was
greater in suburban gardens in southern England than
in agricultural habitats [11], and the density of bumblebee
nests recorded in UK suburban gardens (36 nests ha 1)
was comparable to that found in linear countryside
habitats, such as hedgerows (20–37 nests ha 1) [12].
Estimates of the areas of gardens in the urban environment vary from 16% (Stockholm, Sweden [13]), through
22–27% in the UK [14], to 36% (Dunedin, New Zealand
[15]). Gardens are a major component of the total green
space in many UK cities, ranging from 35% in Edinburgh to
47% in Leicester [14]. Gardens can also be an important
resource in developing countries; for example, private
urban patios comprise 86% of all green space in the city
of Leo´n, Nicaragua [16]. The potential value of gardens for
enhancing biodiversity has long been recognised, as evidenced by many popular books, television programmes and
information handouts advising on ‘wildlife-friendly’ gardening. Initiatives to enhance the biodiversity value of
gardens by conservation NGOs and governments are
now commonplace in developed countries (Box 1).
CT
As urbanisation increases globally and the natural
environment becomes increasingly fragmented, the
importance of urban green spaces for biodiversity conservation grows. In many countries, private gardens are
a major component of urban green space and can provide considerable biodiversity benefits. Gardens and
adjacent habitats form interconnected networks and a
landscape ecology framework is necessary to understand the relationship between the spatial configuration
of garden patches and their constituent biodiversity. A
scale-dependent tension is apparent in garden management, whereby the individual garden is much smaller
than the unit of management needed to retain viable
populations. To overcome this, here we suggest mechanisms for encouraging ‘wildlife-friendly’ management
of collections of gardens across scales from the neighbourhood to the city.
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Institute for Integrative and Comparative Biology, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, LS2 9JT
Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK, LS2 9JT
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Mark A. Goddard1, Andrew J. Dougill2 and Tim G. Benton1
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Urbanisation and its impacts
Urban growth is occurring at an unprecedented scale. In
2008, for the first time, >50% of the global human population lived in urban environments [1]. Much of this urbanisation is occurring in developing countries, which are
predicted to harbour 80% of the urban population of the
world by 2030 [1]. The developed world has already experienced an urban transition, with 80% of people residing in
towns and cities [1]. Although urban areas remain a relatively small fraction of the terrestrial surface (4% globally), the urban ecological footprint extends beyond city
boundaries and drives environmental change at local to
global scales [2].
Rapid urban expansion is impacting heavily on ecological processes (Table 1). Unsurprisingly, given the scale and
variety of these impacts, urbanisation is a significant factor
in both current and predicted species extinctions [3]. We
are also witnessing an ‘extinction of experience’, whereby
people living in species-poor cities are increasingly disconnected from the natural world [4]. Here, we highlight the
valuable role of urban green spaces in mitigating the
detrimental impacts of urbanisation, and draw particular
attention to the significance of private gardens within a
landscape ecology framework.
Although we focus on the biodiversity benefits, urban
green spaces are also important for the provision of ecosystem services and can have a positive impact on quality
of life, human health and wellbeing [5,6]. They provide
opportunities for people to interact with nature and are,
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Corresponding author: Goddard, M.A. ([email protected]).
Documenting garden biodiversity
Despite the growing awareness of the conservation potential of private gardens, information on wildlife gardening is
supported by only limited ecological research. This is
mainly because residential landscapes have long been
viewed as depauperate ecosystems, where access to the
system is difficult owing to fragmented private ownership.
0169-5347/$ – see front matter ß 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tree.2009.07.016 Available online xxxxxx
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Table 1. Impacts of urbanisation on habitat and the resulting biological effects
Impact of urbanisation on habitat
Habitat loss, fragmentation and disturbance
[45,86]
[87,88]
[2]
Local adaptation and evolution caused by behavioural, morphological and genetic
responses to novel selective pressures (e.g. noise necessitating changes in bird song)
[90,91]
project (BUGS), which involved floral and faunal sampling
of 61 gardens in Sheffield, UK, and was followed by floral
surveys of 276 gardens in five further UK cities (BUGS 2)
(reviewed in [22]). Similar short-term studies of the fauna
of residential gardens have been carried out in the USA
[23], and are now emerging in tropical developing cities
[24]. Long-term studies of multiple gardens have also been
undertaken, focusing on national and continental trends in
garden use by birds (e.g. [25,26]).
Key findings from this range of garden studies are that,
in addition to the high cultivated floral diversity, the threedimensional structure (i.e. complexity) of garden vegetation is an important predictor of vertebrate [24,27,28]
and invertebrate abundance and diversity [29,30]. Planting and management by humans is the overwhelming
influence on garden vegetation, as evidenced by the similarity in plant species richness and composition in gardens
across five contrasting UK cities [31].
Gardens and their management create considerable
habitat; in UK gardens, there are estimated to be a total
of 28.7 million trees, at least 4.7 million nest boxes and up
to 3.5 million ponds [32]. Although the effectiveness of such
habitat creation for increasing biodiversity was found to be
variable when tested experimentally [33], the wide provision of resources displays the public enthusiasm towards
wildlife gardening. Indeed, a questionnaire survey across
five UK cities found that significant numbers of households
participate in some form of wildlife gardening and/or management, with bird feeding the most popular activity [34].
A total of 12.6 million (48%) of UK households feed wild
birds [32], and such levels of supplementary feeding can
influence avian abundance at regional scales [35].
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The management of private gardens lies largely outside direct
government control and, therefore, various strategies exist for
incentivising homeowners into wildlife-friendly gardening activities.
Initiatives by conservation NGOs are now commonplace in developed countries; for instance, the USA National Audubon Society’s
‘Audubon at Home’ project offers participants the chance to take the
‘Healthy Yard Pledge’ and commit to several management principles (http://www.audubon.org/bird/at_home/). In the UK, the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds’ (RSPB) ‘Homes for Wildlife’
scheme encouraged >25 000 people to undertake >300 000 tailored
management actions in their homes and gardens in its first year of
operation (http://www.rspb.org.uk/hfw/). Several conservation charities provide advice and incentives for individuals or communities
to ‘certify’ their gardens or neighbourhoods as wildlife habitats. The
USA National Wildlife Federation Backyard Habitat Certification
Scheme is particularly popular and currently includes >100 000
certified backyards (http://www.nwf.org/backyard/).
The recognition of gardens within government nature conservation strategies is also growing. An increasing number of cities are
producing documents aimed at protecting garden biodiversity,
particularly in the UK (e.g. the London private gardens action plan;
http://www.lbp.org.uk/londonhabspp.html#gardens), but also elsewhere, (e.g. Adelaide, South Australia; http://www.backyards4
wildlife.com.au/).
Homeowners now provide a valuable source of fieldworkers for
research organisations by collecting scientific data in their own
backyards. The popularity of public ‘gardenwatch’ initiatives, such
as the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch (http://www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch/) and the British Trust for Ornithology Garden BirdWatch
(http://www.bto.org/gbw/) in the UK, and Project FeederWatch in the
USA and Canada (http://www.birds.cornell.edu/pfw/), underlines the
importance of gardens for raising awareness about biodiversity and
the public understanding of science. Not only have these garden
data revealed important population trends (e.g. [25]), but this ‘citizen
science’ movement also has huge potential for enhancing urban
environments by coordinating public management actions to
produce cumulative positive impacts on biodiversity [74].
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[89]
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Box 1. Existing garden conservation strategies
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Decreased biodiversity, high nutrient loadings and elevated primary production
produce an ‘urban stream syndrome’
Shifts in trophic structure and food-web dynamics
Early investigations of suburban habitats did not attempt
to gain access to private properties and involved comparisons between residential and natural areas (e.g. [17]),
between suburban neighbourhoods differing in age, vegetation characteristics and location (e.g. [18]) and along
urban–rural residential gradients (e.g. [19]). The majority
of private garden research has been undertaken in developed countries and began with long-term studies of single
gardens (e.g. [20,21]). Short-term studies of multiple gardens have now been undertaken in various locations, most
notably the Biodiversity in Urban Gardens in Sheffield
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Increased air temperatures and altered
atmospheric chemistry (i.e. elevated
CO2, NOx, aerosols, metals and ozone)
Increase in impervious surfaces alters
hydrology of urban watersheds
Altered productivity, competition and
predation
Altered environmental conditions
(e.g. increased ambient sound)
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Import of species for human landscaping
Biological effects
Reduced species richness and evenness resulting in biotic homogenisation
Peaked species richness at intermediate levels of urbanisation, particularly
for birds and plants
Domination of floras by exotic species, causing increased species richness relative
to rural areas, but decreased native plant diversity
Invasion of species to surrounding semi-natural habitats
Altered nutrient cycling, primary production and plant growth
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Negative impacts of urban biodiversity
The presence of a diverse biota in private gardens, coupled
with considerable enthusiasm for wildlife-friendly management, means that urban green spaces could be viewed
as a panacea for biodiversity conservation in human-modified environments. Yet the converse is often true, with
urban areas providing a real threat to native biodiversity.
Urbanisation can accelerate the transmission of wildlife
diseases [36], and gardens are also the source of a major
predator: the domestic cat. The density of cats in urban
areas of Britain has been estimated at least 132 cats km 2
[37], and a mean predation rate of 21 prey cat 1 y 1 [38].
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Box 2. Urban landscape ecology tools
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Inherent in landscape ecology are concepts such as patch size, scale
(Box 3), fragmentation (the breaking up of patches into smaller
parcels), connectivity (the degree to which habitat is spatially
continuous or functionally connected), and spatial heterogeneity
(the uneven distribution of patches across a landscape). The
importance of these concepts vary among taxa as a function of
body size, resource requirements and dispersal abilities. The heart
of the methodology of landscape ecology is classification and
pattern analysis, and the unique application of these methods in the
urban environment is summarised below.
Urban classification systems
Urban classification is undertaken at different spatial scales. At
fine spatial scales, cities comprise a complex mosaic of built and
vegetated patches, and land-cover classification systems have been
developed that capture this fine-grained landscape heterogeneity
(e.g. [92]). These classification systems benefit from advances in
remote-sensing technology (i.e. satellite imagery and digital aerial
photography), which enable analysis at increasingly fine resolutions. For example, Mathieu et al. [15] used automated techniques to
identify >90% of gardens from other land covers in Dunedin, New
Zealand, based on high-resolution Ikonos satellite imagery. These
remote-sensing approaches are now being used to help predict
patterns of species richness in urban environments (e.g. [93]).
Pattern analysis
Quantifying patterns is a prerequisite to understanding the link
between patch structure and ecological processes. An array of
landscape metrics, or indices, has been developed for this purpose
and their application has been facilitated by the use of Geographic
Information System technology. The effects of urban development
patterns on ecosystem function are increasingly well documented
(e.g. [48]). A popular framework for exploring variation in urban
landscape patterns is the gradient paradigm, whereby the effects of
biophysical changes along a gradient from rural hinterland to urban
centre are examined. Combining the gradient approach with the
computation of landscape metrics has revealed that, along a
gradient of increasing urbanisation, patch density generally increases whereas patch size and landscape connectivity decrease
(e.g. [94]). Over 200 empirical studies have used gradient analysis as
a tool for assessing the impacts of urbanisation on the distribution
of organisms (reviewed in [95]). However, the development of
landscape metrics offers a new and unexplored opportunity for
explicitly quantifying the effects of urban landscape structure on
ecosystem function and biodiversity.
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The impact of cat predation and associated sub-lethal,
indirect effects on urban bird populations gives, therefore,
particular cause for concern [37,39].
The total plant-species richness recorded in 267 gardens
in five UK cities (1056 species) exceeded that recorded in
other urban and semi-natural habitats [31]. However,
much of this increased diversity is the result of landscaping
and gardening practices that import and maintain exotic
species at artificially high densities. For example, 70% of
the UK garden flora is exotic in origin [31]. The impact of
exotic vegetation on higher trophic levels within the residential ecosystem remains an area of debate. A study of six
pairs of gardens within a suburban area of Pennsylvania,
USA, found that native planting significantly increased the
bird and butterfly diversity as compared to conventionally
managed non-native gardens [40], matching findings of
earlier studies from Australia [27,41]. These results are
supported by research in experimental gardens showing
that exotic plants are little utilised by native pollinating
insects [42]. By contrast, the abundance and diversity of
various invertebrate species captured in gardens in Sheffield, UK, was rarely related to native plant species richness, indicating that ‘wildlife-friendly’ gardens need not be
dominated by native planting.
The impact on exotic plants on other garden organisms
notwithstanding, private gardens are a focal point for the
spread of exotic or non-local plants to surrounding natural
communities [43,44], especially in a warming climate [45].
Invasive exotic species that have already escaped from
gardens have caused major economic and conservation
impacts throughout the world. For example, dense stands
of exotic knotweeds Fallopia spp. have replaced natural
vegetation in riparian habitats in Europe, resulting in
decreased plant and invertebrate diversity [46].
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Landscape ecology in the urban environment
During recent decades, research in urban environments
has embraced the ecology-of-cities paradigm: an interdisciplinary approach that views urban landscapes as socioecological systems within which humans and their social
institutions are integrated with the environment [47].
Implicit in the ecology-of-cities framework is that the
provision of ecosystem services relies on the spatial
arrangement of habitat patches at the city scale (particularly the patch size, connectivity and heterogeneity, Box 2)
[48]. Understanding urban environments, therefore,
requires a landscape ecology perspective [49].
Cities are characterised by habitat patches that are
small, fragmented and isolated. Consequently, the standard positive relationships between species richness,
area and connectivity are especially pertinent in urban
ecosystems. For instance, Evans et al. [50] reviewed 72
studies of the habitat influences on urban avifaunas, and
concluded that larger habitat patches support larger and
more stable bird populations. Similar results apply for a
range of other taxa occupying urban environments, such
as amphibians [51], mammals [52] and carabid beetles
[53]. The importance of habitat connectivity has also been
demonstrated in the urban landscape; for example, for
birds in wooded streets [54] and mammals in habitat
fragments [52].
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Trends in Ecology and Evolution
An area of debate in urban ecosystems (as in agricultural systems) is the relative importance of local (i.e.
garden)-scale versus landscape (i.e. city)-scale factors in
determining biodiversity. The consensus from avian
research is that local factors are more important than
regional ones in explaining avian species richness in
urban landscapes ([50] and references therein). However,
most existing avian studies have been undertaken within
large urban habitat patches, such as parks, which are
larger than a typical garden. Furthermore, research from
other taxa suggests that the heterogeneity of the surrounding landscape is significant. For example, the retention of butterfly and burnet species in grassland reserves
within the city of Prague, Czech Republic, was attributed,
in part, to the diverse mosaic of gardens, parks and green
spaces in the urban landscape surrounding the reserves
[55].
A useful parallel exists between urban and agricultural
ecosystems. Both cities and farmed landscapes are
highly modified by human activities and are comprised
of nested subsets of patches spanning several spatial
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Box 3. Why does scale matter?
However, we suggest that treating the single garden as
an independent patch (and thus prioritising management
initiatives at the individual garden scale) is problematic.
Problems arise as ecological processes depend on spatial
scale (Box 3) and, therefore, the appropriate scale of management will be taxon dependent. Given that birds are
capable of foraging across large scales, management at a
local scale can create good foraging conditions and give rise
to the finding that local-scale factors are most significant.
However, birds utilise resources from the wider landscape.
For instance, Hostetler and Holling [57] showed that most
birds in US cities are able to exploit urban tree patches at
broad scales from 0.2–85 km2. Likewise, Chamberlain et al.
[58] concluded that the likelihood of many bird species
occurring in UK gardens is related to the surrounding
habitat, rather than on within-garden habitat features.
Similarly, mobile invertebrate taxa will utilise urban green
space at broader scales than the individual garden. For
example, Smith et al. [29,30] examined the influence of
landscape factors on invertebrate diversity and abundance
by quantifying the land use in a 1-ha area surrounding 61
study gardens in Sheffield, UK and found correlations
between landscape variables and the species richness
and abundance of mobile invertebrate taxa including beetles, bees and wasps.
To test explicitly for the influence of local and landscape
effects, it is necessary to sample at multiple spatial scales
[59]. This will involve simultaneously sampling several
gardens that are located within the same landscape but
that differ in local characteristics such as size and vegetation structure. In other words, the patch comprising of a
group of adjacent gardens becomes the sampling unit, with
individual gardens the sampling points within the patch.
Although such a sampling design is constrained by access
to multiple gardens, it remains the only adequate way of
assessing the relative influence of garden versus landscape
factors.
The emerging literature on the role of gardens for
enhancing native biodiversity has somewhat overlooked
the need to coordinate garden management within the
surrounding landscape. Recent work has begun to recognise the importance of considering groups of gardens at a
coarser scale, especially for supporting avian diversity. An
interconnected network of mature and structurally diverse
gardens has been recommended for supporting bird populations in Madrid, Spain [60] and Melbourne, Australia
[61]. Sympathetically managed garden networks are also
significant in the provision of ecological connectivity. For
instance, planting native vegetation has been advocated in
gardens adjacent to creeks in New South Wales, Australia,
to enhance habitat connectivity by extending the width of
riparian corridors [62]. Similarly, a connectivity analysis
by Rudd et al. [63] demonstrated that garden habitats are
vital in providing functional connectivity between urban
green spaces in Greater Vancouver, Canada.
The relationship between private gardens and urban
green space is further evident in the concept of ‘ecological
land-use complementation’, which outlines how urban
habitats could interact synergistically to support biodiversity when clustered together [64]. Indeed, the presence of
adjacent gardens can increase the species richness of urban
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Different taxa will perceive and respond to landscape structure at
many spatial scales, depending on a range of parameters, such as
body size and life-history characteristics [57], life stage (e.g. sessile
versus mobile life-stages; dispersing young) and season (e.g. birds
defend a smaller home range when breeding than when foraging
more widely in winter).
The scale of sampling can confound ecological patterns. For
example, there might be negative or positive relationships between
human population density and biodiversity depending on the study
extent considered: negative at fine scales (where high building
density precludes natural habitats) and positive at large scales
(where both humans and wildlife tend to occupy productive areas
and not live in deserts) [96].
Borgstrom et al. [97] contend that ‘scale mismatches’ are prevalent
in urban ecosystems, whereby the scale of management does not
match the scale of ecological patterns and processes. For some taxa
(e.g. soil organisms), a viable population can exist within a garden.
Yet many of the large and/or mobile taxa, that provide important
ecosystem services, such as pollination and seed dispersal, operate at
broader scales than the individual garden (i.e. groups of gardens and
adjacent urban green spaces). To take into account the scale
dependencies of many taxa properly, it is likely that research and
management at multiple spatial scales is needed [98,99].
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scales. Early conservation management in farmland
ecology was directed at the field scale, but it is now widely
accepted that farmland biodiversity depends on the
creation and maintenance of habitat heterogeneity at
multiple spatial scales [8]. Given that individual gardens
are much smaller than individual fields, it follows that
there is an even larger disparity in residential landscapes
between the existing scale of management and the scale
necessary to retain viable populations of most taxa (Box 3).
Maximising habitat heterogeneity at the correct scale,
such that individual gardens complement the resources
available in the surrounding landscape, should likewise
maximise the biodiversity of urban ecosystems.
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Prospectus for the future
The small, but growing, body of research on garden biodiversity has focused largely on individual gardens. A fruitful next step would be to extend a landscape ecology
framework to the study and management of gardens, in
effect by treating groups of gardens not as independent
units but instead as patches of interconnected habitat
within the residential ecosystem. To make this work
requires collaboration between ecologists and social scientists, urban planners and householders.
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Scaling up from gardens
Previous research shows that the species–area relationship is applicable at the scale of the individual garden.
Garden size is positively related to land-cover composition
(including the diversity of trees and ponds) [56], plant
species richness [31] and avian species richness [26,27].
Garden size does not consistently correlate with invertebrate species richness or abundance, although other garden-scale factors, such as vegetation structure, are
important [29,30]. These findings have led to conclusions
that the design and management of individual gardens are
paramount, at least for the conservation of native avian
species (e.g. [27]).
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parks [65]. These results suggest a role for urban planning
whereby if private gardens and other green spaces can be
spatially arranged to maximise total habitat patch area
and minimise isolation, this will result in benefits to urban
biodiversity. This is particularly relevant to new developments, but planning consent for the conversion of gardens
to new buildings and driveways (‘land grabbing’) will also
influence patch size and spatial patterns.
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economic processes operate at scales beyond the individual
household. For example, Zmyslony and Gagnon [72]
describe a neighbour ‘mimicry’ effect in the planting and
landscaping of front gardens in Vancouver, Canada,
whereby gardens in a given vicinity are more likely to
be similar to each other than to those in a different street
or neighbourhood. A key challenge is to maximise vegetation complexity throughout the residential ecosystem in
the face of prevailing social norms or across areas where
social resources are lacking for wildlife-friendly garden
management (e.g. time, money, information, etc).
To enhance the conservation value of private gardens,
there is a need to better integrate their design and management into city-wide biodiversity strategies. This
approach is complicated by the hierarchical structure of
residential landscapes: the individual garden is the scale at
which householders manage their land, but the size and
configuration of interconnected garden patches is under
the control of urban planners and housing developers. To
ensure coordinated management at multiple scales
throughout the garden hierarchy, collaboration and com-
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Gardens as socio-ecological constructs
A suite of socio-economic characteristics have been shown
to influence garden management directly and, hence, the
heterogeneity of urban landscapes [66–69] (Figure 1).
Given that these socio-economic factors drive vegetation
complexity, which underpins species richness and abundance, we can expect cultural and social factors to influence
patterns of urban biodiversity [70]. Indeed, several studies
have found correlations between human socio-economic
status and urban bird populations (e.g. [35,71]). It is therefore apparent that just as many garden organisms do not
operate at the scale of the individual garden, many socio-
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Figure 1. Gardens as socio-ecological constructs. A conceptual framework showing the key ecological and socio-economic components impacting on private gardens at
multiple spatial scales. We identify a nested hierarchy in garden management that spans three scales: (a) the individual garden or household; (b) the neighbourhood or
garden ‘patch’; and (c) the city or landscape scale. In reality, many of the ecological and socio-economic factors can act at more than one scale along this continuum (e.g.
vegetation structure or social status) and interactions exist between scales to illustrate feedbacks within the garden ecosystem (black arrows). Ecological factors influence
socio-economic factors through the provision of ecosystem services and economic and health benefits (red arrows). Socio-economic factors influence ecological conditions
via human decision-making and subsequent management (blue arrows). Research and management is necessary at multiple scales to maximise the utility of private
gardens for native biodiversity conservation.
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Incentivising householders into wildlife-friendly
gardening
To target conservation resources at a meaningful scale, we
must explore mechanisms for encouraging multi-scale,
complementary wildlife-friendly management of gardens
and adjacent green spaces. We are currently witnessing a
paradigm shift in biodiversity conservation, away from the
establishment and maintenance of protected nature
reserves towards community-based conservation [73].
Yet, the general public remains inexperienced in biodiversity management and the resulting lack of coordination
among private householders can result in the ‘tyranny of
small decisions’, whereby the cumulative outcome of many
garden-scale management decisions is detrimental to
native biodiversity in residential landscapes [74].
Options for incentivising householders into wildlifefriendly gardening fall into two broad categories: (i) topdown, financial incentives or regulation; and (ii) bottomup, community-lead initiatives. Top-down incentives
might include tax reductions or government grants for
sympathetic management (e.g. for building a pond or
creating a compost heap), as per financial incentives
offered successfully to households for the installation of
renewable energy technologies [75]. Top-down approaches
can also be implemented for wildlife conservation purposes, with tax incentives and subsidies an increasingly
popular tool for imposing the US Endangered Species Act
on private land [76]. Planning regulation can also be a topdown approach, such as declining applications for new
development on existing gardens, or enabling protection
of hedgerows or trees.
Although top-down incentives can produce pro-environmental behaviour, they often fail to change underlying
values and attitudes [77] and fail to understand the motivations of gardeners [78]. The garden evokes strong feelings
of ownership and sense of place [7], and is the perfect
setting for generating meaningful connections with nature
that will increase emotional involvement and uphold longterm pro-environmental behaviour. Moreover, gardeners
tend to have a greater ecological knowledge than do managers of urban green spaces [79]. At the neighbourhood
scale, householders often form organisations, such as residents’ associations or horticultural societies. These community organisations have been viewed as local ‘stewards’
and can be targeted for participatory techniques that
engage groups of gardeners in managing their land more
sympathetically and synergistically for wildlife [13].
could be managed collectively as ‘habitat gardens’ has been
posited before (e.g. [22,80]), but there has been little exploration of how such schemes would work in practice.
As a simplistic example, many cities will already have
planning documents or green space strategies that
promote the creation and maintenance of green infrastructure, such as habitat corridors or stepping stones. Such
plans could be structured according to the creation of
‘habitat zones’, within which the management of urban
green spaces encourages the coverage of a specific habitat
type, such as woodland or wetland. The mosaic of different
habitat zones within a city and its rural hinterland will
ensure that habitat heterogeneity is provided at the landscape scale. Householders, community groups, NGOs and
housing developers operating within each habitat zone
could then be given tailored wildlife-gardening advice.
Such integration of biodiversity conservation with urban
planning is exemplified by the ‘Zonation’ conservation
planning tool implemented in Melbourne, Australia, which
incorporates landscape context and species-specific connectivity requirements to identify priority areas for the
protection of threatened species [81].
The gardens and green spaces of new housing developments offer particularly fruitful opportunities for the
creation of tailored habitat gardens comprised of native
planting of local provenance. Given appropriate education
and support (e.g. from a local ecologist), residents are
likely to take pride in being involved in such a scheme,
and might even be supportive of more radical proposals,
such as the ‘Cats Indoors!’ campaign sponsored by the
American Bird Conservancy (http://www.abcbirds.org/
abcprograms/policy/cats/). Such pride in one’s own patch
is apparent in existing social norms, whereby the desire to
conform to a suburban ideal (known as the ‘ecology of
prestige’ [66]) results in strong similarities in garden structure within a neighbourhood. Warren et al. [82] imagine that
if the same social processes can be harnessed to develop a
conservation ethos, then neighbours might compete over the
creation of wildlife habitat rather than the maintenance of
weed-free biological deserts (i.e. lawns).
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munication between a range of stakeholders across all
sectors of society and academia is required (Figure 1).
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Tailoring wildlife gardening advice to the landscape
context
Several successful garden-scale NGO projects and more
research-focused biodiversity recording schemes are testament to the potential for bottom-up community participation projects (Box 1). However, maximising the conservation
benefit or ecosystem function of a particular garden requires
tailoring wildlife-friendly gardening practice to the context
as the ecology of any small area depends on the wider
landscape. The idea that entire gardens, or groups thereof,
6
Concluding remarks
In a context of rapid urbanisation, biodiversity conservation within towns and cities has a significant role in minimising both the extinction of species and the extinction of
the human experience of wildlife. Although parks and
reserves remain the focus of urban nature conservation,
private gardens offer an extensive, unique and undervalued resource for enhancing urban biodiversity. Gardens
are significant habitats in their own right, and improve
connectivity by functioning as corridors or by enlarging the
size of other urban habitats. It is therefore imperative that
gardens are not viewed as separate entities at the individual scale, but instead managed collectively as interconnected patches or networks of green space acting at
multiple spatial scales across the urban landscape. Yet
little is known on the ideal size or configuration of these
garden patches, and quantifying the patch structure
through the application of landscape ecology tools will
further our understanding of residential ecosystems. Several key research questions emerge:
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7 Gross, H. and Lane, N. (2007) Landscapes of the lifespan: Exploring
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24 Gonza´lez-Garcı´a, A. et al. (2009) The role of urban greenspaces in fauna
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26 Thompson, P.S. et al. (1993) Birds in European gardens in the winter
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27 Daniels, G.D. and Kirkpatrick, J.B. (2006) Does variation in garden
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28 van Heezik, Y. et al. (2008) Diversity of native and exotic birds
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29 Smith, R.M. et al. (2006) Urban domestic gardens (VIII):
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30 Smith, R.M. et al. (2006) Urban domestic gardens (VI): environmental
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413
Acknowledgements
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Answering such questions will inform the planning of
residential developments and reveal the optimal scale at
which to focus conservation initiatives that seek to harmonise the cumulative management actions of householders
and communities. This will involve new trans-disciplinary
partnerships [83] that are increasingly being successfully
implemented in rural settings [84]. If the bigger ecological
question is how to enhance native urban biodiversity
through green space management, then the solutions lie
in realigning the scale at which land-use decisions are
made and ecological processes occur. Undertaking private
garden research and management at the appropriate
scale would be an instructive next step in finding such a
solution.
Vol.xxx No.x
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(i) What is the optimal garden patch size and
configuration for different taxa in the residential
landscape? Given the different scale dependencies
of different taxa, could the patch size and configuration optimal for one taxon (e.g. birds) also
accommodate other taxa whose requirements occur
at a finer scale? How much does the optimal patch
size and configuration differ across suburbs depending on the management of individual gardens (e.g.
vegetation structure, bird feeding, application of
chemicals, etc.)?
(ii) Given that the optimal garden patch will comprise a
group of adjacent gardens, what mechanisms exist for
the creation and maintenance of ‘habitat gardens’
that transcend the boundaries of the individual plot?
What are the social drivers behind garden management decisions and how do we reverse social
norms that reinforce the detrimental management of
private gardens?
(iii) Given that most urban residents live in developing
countries where private green spaces within cities are
often lacking, how can we best design cityscapes and
engage communities in the developing world to
maximise urban biodiversity globally? Can urban
agriculture provide both increased food security and
biodiversity conservation benefits in cities worldwide?
M.G. is funded by a University of Leeds Earth and Biosphere Institute
scholarship. The authors thank Jacobus Biesmeijer for intellectual input
into this project and five anonymous referees for helpful comments on
earlier versions of the manuscript.
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